Painting
Mural 3 was a community event in Poiana Negostarului. In
that tiny little village, in a very remote corner of Moldavia, any kind
of event like this was news. And, news of the project certainly
traveled fast. Ten minutes after starting the mural, the principal
of the local school came by. After seeing what we were up to,
he exclaimed, “I want a mural in my school.” And,
of course, I immediately liked that idea. Another wall?
Yep, I’d come back for that!

Actually
getting back to Romania wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped.
I wanted to return in October. My connections in Romania said
it wasn’t a good time. Try coming back in the spring.
So, I arranged my schedule to come back in April. Again, my connections
in Romania said it wasn’t a good time. Try coming back in
the summer. Unfortunately, with my schedule, that wasn’t
possible. It appeared to me that the mural wouldn’t happen.

However,
my connections in Romania weren’t my only connections. The
student who originally invited me to Romania (read about that in Mural
3) was about as connected as you can get. His father owned the
company that sponsored the project. This student wanted to paint
a mural for a community service project during his spring break.
Need I say more? We went to Romania in the spring.

We were
warned. The roads were muddy and our vehicle did get stuck once.
However, the rains in Romania and the muddy roads to this village paled
in comparison to what I knew so very well from my Peace Corps days in
West Africa during the rainy season. This trip was a walk in the
park. Yep, it was a soggy, muddy park, but I had no doubts about
getting to the school to paint the mural. And, arrival in Poiana
Negostarului was a bit of a homecoming. It was so much fun to
see everyone again from the previous mural (which remained in beautiful
condition, by the way.)

There was
quite an international mix of painters on this project at the school.
There were three students from Antwerp (Dutch, Belgian and Spanish),
plus two employees from the sponsoring company, and the two oldest brothers
who received the last mural. There wasn’t much space for
any more help. In fact, not everyone was able to paint at the same time.
There were simply too many elbows and just not enough elbow room.
However, nobody complained. At least, not in a language that I
understood!

MARTIN

Once
again, the people who make my favorite paint, Winsor
& Newton, donated paint for my mural project. It never hurts
to ask. And, it's always so appreciated when the answer is, "Yes,
we support the work that you are doing." A big "merci"
to all of you at Winsor & Newton in Brussels!